On 2001.05.02, Alan Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From a career point of view you are sensible to get Java experience > because there is a lot of well paid java work (here in the UK at > least). I am just about to put my life savings on the line to build a > subscription driven web service so my priorities are not future > employment driven! This is entirely off-topic, but this is a big pet peeve of mine. I HATE JAVA. I absolutely hate it. I currently get paid to write Tcl code, daily. There's some evil brewing at my workplace about using BEA WebLogic for new projects. I flat out said "my resume will be up on dice.com the same day if I get moved away from Tcl." People looked at me all strangely and said "but Java's all over the place! It'll be great for your career, there's so much money in Java!" These people either are foolish, naive, or both. Anyone who has any understanding of basic economics knows what the supply-demand curve looks like. Today, demand has reached a limit -- it's maxed out. So, the only thing that drives price is supply. At this very moment in time, supply is still limited. But, you know what? Universities around the WORLD are pumping out hundreds of thousands of graduates yearly who, with all their Java fresh in their mind, can easily get the Java 2 certification and probably some others. Lets not even begin to talk about what this does to the value of Java certified programmers ... So, as time goes on, demand will remain pegged at max while supply steadily increases. Therefore, price will steadily increase. If you're an employer, this is great news. If you're a programmer, then any investment of your time in learning Java is an exercise in diminishing returns. Currently, I'm a developer and not an employer, so you know what side I'm on ... Just as, once upon a time, a "HTML programmer" (cough, cough) could make upwards of $50-100/hour -- today, a college graduate with a $250 copy of DreamWeaver 4 can be had to do the same thing for under $12/hour. This happened from 1993 to today, only a span of 8 years. And, technology is moving in huge leaps and bounds. Java programmers that are salaried at $80-120k today probably won't be making more than $45-55k in two to three years from now -- this is only my prediction, of course. Of course, I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again, I'm sure, but just as some people didn't see the whole dot-com meltdown coming, they probably don't see this trend, either. - Dossy -- Dossy Shiobara mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
